Category: Photography – Black & White

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Black and White Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Launch for Hire at Inverness

Launch for Hire - Inverness - 2012

While heading out to Point Reyes last Saturday, I took a couple of shots along the highway through Inverness. The first stop was the FV Point Reyes – run aground behind the Inverness Store. See my post “Photography Explorations: Filling the Frame” for more about that shot.

The next step, just a bit further west, was to take this shot of the Launch for Hire building and pier on Tomales Bay. I have a large version of an image of this building that I bought from Chris Honeysett years ago – it hangs in my home office. It’s a beautiful image taken from the other side of the building.

For this image, I used by Canon 5D Mark II and my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens – at 70mm. The image was post-processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro with the final toning added in Lightroom 4.

I love the circle of rocks in the lower left hand corner, the pier at low tide and the contrasty clouds in the sky. There are elements of layers in this image that cause my eye to wander back and forth within the frame – trying to take it all in.

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Black and White Inverness Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photoshop

A Pastoral Panorama at Point Reyes

Panorama---Point-Reyes---2012

Last Saturday, I took a drive up to Point Reyes – mostly to visit some photographers’ open studios but also to do a bit of exploring out at Pierce Point Ranch.

As I was heading back into Inverness for my first open studio visit (Richard Blair), I had been watching the beautiful clouds off in the distance. At one point, the road made a 60 degree turn to the left and I puled over – taking two shots with my little Canon PowerShot S100. This image is a two shot panorama stitched together in Photoshop CS6 and then converted to monochrome using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

I enjoy the tree on the right and almost how the clouds are flowing out from it to the left. The fence provides a bit of layering to the image which I also enjoy. A fun – and beautiful – image shot with a bit of whimsy along the road to Inverness. Be sure to click on the image to see a much larger version!

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Black and White Current Affairs History Living Photography Photography - Black & White

Memorial Day 2012 – Freedom Is Not Free

In the Snow - Korean War Veterans Memorial - 2005

On this beautiful late May evening, I’ve been looking back at other Memorial Days I’ve written about. At church with my Mom yesterday, I was reminded by the pastor that Memorial Day was first called Decoration Day – it dates back to just after the Civil War and was a commemoration of the soldiers who died in that war.

Today, we remember both those who sacrificed their lives in service to our country as well as memories of those close to us.

The image above is of the Korean War Veterans Memorial on The Mall in Washington, DC. It was taken in the middle of a late February 2005 snowfall by our daughter on a school trip. American soldiers on patrol.

Engraved into a wall of the memorial are the words: “Freedom Is Not Free”.

Indeed. Never forget.

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iPhone 4S Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Photography Explorations: Filling the Frame

Derelict - Inverness - 2012

On Saturday, I took a drive up to Point Reyes – motivated by the Open Studios held this weekend. There were a few photographers having open studios – including my friend – and black and white photographer – Marty Knapp. Before heading to the open studios, however, I stopped by a few of my favorite sites in Inverness and at Pierce Point Ranch out on Point Reyes.

Screen Shot 2012 05 28 at 7 44 51 AM

First stop was the FV Point Reyes, a popular site just behind the Inverness Grocery Store. Many photographers have shot this forlorn fishing boat over the last few years. I made a quick stop here – spending at most 10 minutes – shooting hand-held with my Canon 5D Mark II with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens – and my iPhone 4S.

I first captured the usual iconic shots of the boat – from about a half dozen angles as I walked around the bow. As I was about to leave, I noticed how lovely the light was on the cabin of the boat itself – and that motivated me to go in closer and to “fill the frame”, not worrying about capturing the whole boat itself.

This image turns out of be one of what I consider the best of my recent photos – with the beautiful light, the great detail of the boat’s “grunge”, the bokeh and moodiness in the sky behind, etc. I titled it “Derelict”. A great example of one of the basics of great photography: “fill the frame”! The major point about filling the frame is that our minds will deal with the missing elements – it’s certainly easy to see that this is a fishing boat – and, given it’s tilt, that something’s amiss!

Screen Shot 2012 05 28 at 7 49 38 AM

Here’s another image – one that was more heavily post-processed including a texture overlay – of the FV Point Reyes that I posted last summer.

PS: If you’re in the US, hope you’re having a great Memorial Day weekend! We had one of our grilled tri-tip dinners last night that was wonderful – a bit more more on that later once I update the menu on my Scott’s Kitchen web site.

PPS: Here’s a straight out of the camera shot of the FV Point Reyes – taken with my iPhone 4S. Sort of sets the scene for the closeup shot above!

FV Point Reyes Inverness 640px
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Black and White iPhone 4S Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White

Mad Men in Chicago – iPhone 4S at Work

Mad Men - Chicago - 2012

I continue to be amazed at the beautiful photography that’s possible using just the iPhone 4S and a few of the photo adjustment applications that run on it.

This is my latest example – titled “Mad Men – Chicago – 2012” – an image shot with my iPhone 4S inside the Sixteen restaurant at the Trump Hotel in Chicago. Tweaked using Nik’s Snapseed application on the iPhone, it features a lovely contrast between the old city landmarks outside and the sleek windows and diners inside. A bit of tilt-shift treatment also added in Snapseed adds just enough blur up top and down below to keep things interesting!

A friend commented: “I expect Don Draper to walk in at any moment!”

Photography on the iPhone 4S is just so much fun!

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Black and White Half Moon Bay Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photoshop

From Capture to Final Image – An Example

IMG 8129

In January, Doug Kaye and I headed out for some photography along the Half Moon Bay coastline. We headed first for the beautiful trees of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve – and, as we were heading back, I shot this image looking down on the beach at Moss Beach. The image above is straight out of the camera – a Canon 5D Mark II with a 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. This particular image was shot at 1/800 sec at f/7.1 at a focal length of 135mm.

The final image – after post-processing – is below – titled: : Windswept – Moss Beach – 2012.

Windswept - Moss Beach - 2012

Order a Limited Edition print of this photo

The steps from the original image out of the camera to the final result involved some tweaking first in Lightroom 4 – mostly about alignment – and then exporting the image to PhotoShop CS6 for some tweaking using Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2. In Color Efex, I used the Detail Extractor, Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow filters to enhance the color image. I then opened it in Silver Efex to convert it to monochrome – and tweaked the brightness, contrast and structure settings to enhanced the layered image effect. A bit of selenium color was added along with a subtle vignette – before saving it and bringing it back into Lightroom.

A few final tweaks in Lightroom included final alignment and cropping, and an additional subtle vignette. I also updated the keyword meta data and added a title/caption.

Hope you enjoy it!

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Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 San Francisco/California

Our BART Photo Tour

Car 28 - San Francisco - 2012

Yesterday, Doug Kaye and I headed out for another one of our duo photo walks. These are always great fun – as we get to catch up and chat while having a fun time photographing things that we see. We usually pick a venue and work it pretty thoroughly – but this time we tried something different.

The weather forecast looked like it might be a nasty day to be out and about – so Doug suggested we try hopping on BART and then getting off at a couple of the more interesting stations to just see what we could find that might be interesting.

Sounded like a plan – we agreed to meet at the Powell St. BART station – me arriving from Daly City and Doug from North Berkeley. We both got there within 5 minutes of each other and could see some blue sky up through the exit. So, instead of staying underground, we headed outside to Market Street and began taking pictures.

The one above is of the Muni cable car turntable at Powell and Market Streets. This image was shot with my Canon PowerShot S100 and post processed using Adobe Lightroom 4. Because of the weather and our original plan of mostly being underground, we both left our big cameras behind and just brought along small cameras – the S100 in my case and a brand new Fujifilm X-Pro 1 that Doug had rented for the weekend.

From there, we walked down Yerba Buena Lane to Yerba Buena Center where we explored “puddle photography” – taking pictures of reflections in puddles of water, glass reflections, the kids’ carousel, and more.

After lunch at Mel’s, we walked back to BART and headed toward the Glen Park station – apparently known for its architecture.

After that, on to SFO Airport and the Aviation Museum there. I’ve been to that airport hundreds of times – but never to the museum! We had fun talking with the curators there and were able to have some fun taking photos of an Italian motorcycle exhibit in the large International terminal. From there, we headed home – to begin looking at what we had captured during the day – some 115 images in my case!

It’s always fun to see what we each captured and what (and how) we choose to interpret our images in post-processing.

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Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

Stockton Street – Chinatown – San Francisco

Stockton Street - Chinatown San Francisco - 2012

This is another image from my photo walk with Doug Kaye in San Francisco last Thursday. Doug noticed that this section of street across from us wasn’t blocked by parked cars, trucks, etc. He shot several shots that he put together into a panorama – and I did the same.

Mine were shot using a Canon 5D Mark II – three handheld images taken with a bit of overlap – and then merged together using PhotoShop CS5. I post-processed the image using Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex 2 – adding sharpness, sepia toning, and a slight vignette to make the image appear a bit aged. Click on the image to see a larger version.

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Black and White Photographers Photography Photography - Black & White Photoshop

Multiple Image Artists – Idris Khan, Pep Ventosa

In today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine, artist Idris Khan was featured. His multiple image black and white compositions of London are quite striking – with great depth. They capture your eye – and keep your eyes in the frame. Great work, indeed. Really great.

Khan’s images remind me of another of my favorite local artists – Pep Ventosa. Pep is another master of this kind of multiple image compositions – in color.

Both of these artists obviously spend a lot of time both working their subjects in the field and in Photoshop as they compose their art.

I love ’em both!

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Black and White iPhone 4S Photography Photography - Black & White Stanford

Benches

Back from another wonderful session today with good friends at the Walker Evans exhibition at Stanford’s Cantor Art Center. Last fall, I took a portraiture class taught by Neal Menschel at Stanford’s Continuing Studies program – and many of us met up today to tour the Walker Evans show.

While we were there, I shot this image out in the inner courtyard with my iPhone 4S. It was all post-processed on the iPhone – using Nik’s superb Snapseed along with Noir.

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